Closing Arguments Set In Iraq War Veteran’s Killing

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SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — Closing arguments are set to begin Wednesday in the trial of an Orange County man accused of murdering his roommate, a veteran of the Iraq War, who was just days away from her college graduation.

Ramos, who was days shy of graduation from Cal State Fullerton, was a veteran of the war in Iraq and was last seen May 2, 2013, on video surveillance dropping off a rent check at her property manager’s office.

Officials believe Ramos and Joy got into an argument earlier that day after she told him he needed to move out of her home in Orange because he was not paying rent.

Two weeks after Ramos’ disappearance, Joy reportedly performed a search on a computer at the Orange Library, which was being monitored by an IT specialist.

The Google Maps search performed by Joy that day in May 2013 led detectives to Ramos’ body, according to the District Attorney’s Office said.

Jurors were also shown police pictures of Joy, who is a martial arts expert, taken shortly after Ramos’ disappearance, and in which there are visible scratch marks on his arm.

Authorities believe the scratches may have been produced by a barbed-wire fence in Santiago Canyon, where the body of Ramos was discovered.

Before his arrest in 2013, Joy took part in an interview with CBS2’s Michele Gile, in which he blamed the scratches on his arm on an accident while walking their dogs.

Also played for the jury was the 911 call Ramos made to police after reportedly asking Joy to move out, just days before her death, in which she can be heard crying, and saying: “I swear I would kill him. I swear. I’m scared of him.”